Category: Insights

Insights

How Can Debt Settlement Affect Your Credit Score

Miley on August 6, 2018

Dealing with any kind of past due debts can prove to be difficult. If you cannot afford to pay the amount in full, you can always negotiate for a lower sum payment or debt settlement with the creditor. Debt settlement generally means you will get into an agreement with creditors for paying less than stated balance, to satisfy your debt. But, when you settle the debt that’s on credit report, it might affect the score a bit. You can rebuild your credit score after a bankruptcy, but it’s way easier to follow next steps.

More about debt settlements:

As creditors are unwilling to settle debts, which are serviced with time payments, you are always better trying to work the deal with some past due older debt. It is somewhat, which has been turned over to the collections department. It is counter-intuitive, but score drops less when you want to be delinquent in payments.

You can always negotiate debt settlement arrangements directly with a lender or just seek the help of a debt settlement firm. Through either one of the route, you can always make an agreement to repay the only portion of the outstanding debt.
In case the lender agrees, your debt is then reported to credit bureaus as paid settled. Even though this is better for the report than charge off, it will not bear the same old meaning as the rating that indicates your debt has been paid as agreed.
In the best case practice, you have to negotiate with creditor way ahead of time to have this account of “paid in full.” This is not going to hurt the credit score as much as you want.

How debt settlement affects credit score:

Most of the loan obligations and credits are highly reported to credit bureaus each month. The account status you have will be reported to show the status of either “paid settled” or “settled.” While a settled status is a bit better than the unpaid one, any status other than “paid as agreed” or “in full” will hurt your credit score in the end.

It is mainly because you are not paying full balance as agreed. So, debt settlement seems to have a negative impact on credit score. The credit is solely based on various different factors. So, the exact impact on credit is subject to vary, depending on other information on a current credit report. However, it is hard to state whether debt settlement will have a significant impact on credit score or not.

Things mentioned by FICO about settlement and credit score:

There are some credit scoring companies, which are not going to give specified details about ways in which credit scores will be calculated or the specified activities, which might affect the credit score of a person. But, there is one point you will know.

In the year 2009, FICO released score loss information, which is solely based on two of the hypothetical consumers with various credit scores. In one case, the person with around 680 credit score would lose between 45 and 65 points after a settlement is covered for one credit card.
Then you have another person with 780 credit score and without any late payments, which might lose between 140 and 160 points. Your credit score might drop if you have any of the credit profile like the mentioned cases and when you are settling a single debt. If you are settling on multiple accounts, the score will drop a bit more.
You can easily predict the impact of late payment on credit score, with the help of the FICO Score Simulator. It is available whenever you purchase the Score Watch from the authentic sources only.

Late payments before the debt settlement procedure:

Debt settlement will easily hurt credit score more if the cards you are settling for already is in good standing and when you are looking for ways to settle multiple card account. There are multiple debt settlement firms, which will advise you to fall purposely behind payments to force the creditors to accept settlement payment on a debt. Lenders, on the other hand, will only settle debts which are at risk of never getting repaid. If you end up following the debt company’s advice, it means you will miss several months of not paying the lenders. This step, in turn, will hurt credit score even before you get to settle a debt.

Debt settlement based information is designed to remain on credit report for 7 years. But, those will have less impact on credit score as the information gets older. It will also change with some positive information adding up to your report.

Some major points to consider:

If you really want to know how debt settlement can affect credit score rating, you might want to catch up with debt settlement reviews for some help. The information provided will help you find some answers, even though the majority of it is covered already. However, there are some important points, which you need to consider.

Remember that settling multiple accounts will hurt you even more than settling only one account.
As with debts, larger balances will have a proportionately larger impact on credit score. In case, you are settling smaller accounts then the impact will be rather negligible. It is applicable if you are currently dealing with bigger loans.
If you are dealing with debt as old as 3 years, then using debt settlement might reactivate debt and will show the service on credit report as a current collection. So, always be sure to get this matter straight with the creditor before even finalizing any agreement.
In credit history, the most important part is the payment history where current accounts will hold the highest impact. If you are currently working on other debts, you must keep the present one in proper shape. That will make rectification a lot easier.
Debt settlement will be on credit report for 7 years. If it took place over 7 years ago and still showing on the report, you have to contact the lender and credit bureau to change the record and remove settlement status.

Remember to keep these points in mind before working with debt settlement firms. Gaining some knowledge beforehand will work for your credit report.

Insights

Some Common Personal Finance Mistakes You Must Avoid for a Hassle-Free Life

Miley on August 1, 2018

Your future financial health is largely reliant on the kind of financial decisions you are taking today. Remember a personal finance mistake could have its own repercussions and impact your future financial health. Here are a few common personal finance mistakes, you must avoid for a financially secure life.

Mistake No.1: Not Keeping Track of Your Credit Score on a Regular Basis

Not monitoring your credit score and not bothering to get your credit report on a regular basis is a major financial error that you could make. Most people do not appreciate the actual importance of examining their credit score from time to time at regular periodic intervals. You must realize that your credit report may show some wrong information as a result of some clerical mistakes by the bureau, or by your lender or because of certain fraudulent accounts or credit applications in your name.

Remember not to take this sort of misinformation lightly. Treat these errors seriously as any kind of wrong information may hamper your loan eligibility in the future. Keeping constant track of your credit score and appraising the credit report periodically could help you detect such mistakes. If you monitor your credit score on a regular basis, you could build it over a period of time effectively through responsible financial behaviour.

Mistake No.2: Waiting for the Best Opportunity to Invest

Many people with lower-rate of savings or low incomes tend to delay all their investments until they obtain a relatively higher salary or are able to build an impressive corpus. However, you must not postpone your investments and grasp all opportunities to invest and gain financially. Remember postponing investments could result in substantial opportunity cost because of the actual power of compounding. In this context, you must understand that with compounding the returns you get from your investments could start to generate returns culminating in a much greater corpus. So start investing at once and try to stay financially disciplined.

Mistake No.3: Maxing Credit Cards

Remember higher utilization of your credit card limit could prove to be detrimental to your overall financial health. This would be adversely impacting your precise credit score and that may, in turn, affect your loan eligibility in future. It is a good idea to restrict all your credit card spending to 30 percent of the credit limit available to you. When you notice that you are breaching this limit quite often, it is best to put in a request for extending your credit limit. You may alternatively apply for an additional one. If you have crossed the limits of your credit cards and are not able to make the repayments, it is best to get rid of your debts by seeking professional assistance.

Mistake No. 4: Excessive Spending

Avoid being frivolous. Remember even great fortunes could be lost little by little. You may not think twice while choosing a pack of cigarettes or a double-mocha cappuccino, or have dinner in an expensive restaurant, but all these insignificant expenses seem to add up. If you are going through a financial crisis, it is best to avoid this gross mistake. If you are heading towards a bankruptcy or foreclosure, it is best to spend every dollar more carefully.

One way to control excessive spending is by using a prepaid debit card. They only allow you to spend whatever funds you’ve pre-loaded on your card. Check out this list of the 5 best prepaid debit cards.

Mistake No. 5: Indulging in Endless Payments

You must be cautious while spending. You must deliberate and ask yourself if you are doing the right thing by spending on items that may not be your top priority and end up paying for these, month after month, and year after year. You must understand that certain things such as music services, cable television or expensive gym memberships could compel you to make endless payments. Remember when cash flow is restricted, you must lead a leaner lifestyle to boost your savings and safeguard yourself from financial hardship.

Mistake No. 6: Living Constantly on Borrowed Finances

Using your credit cards for purchasing essentials may seem pretty normal but you must avoid doing that for financial health. Many people are more than willing to high-interest rates on groceries, gasoline, and a number of other things that are all used up before the bill is actually paid in full. Do not forget that credit card rate of interest would be making the price of any charged item a lot more expensive. If you constantly depend on your credit card, you are more likely to spend more.

Mistake No. 7: Paycheck to Paycheck Existence

As per fresh statistics, it is believed that in March 2018, the household personal rate of savings was only 3.1 percent in the U.S.A. as per the Federal Reserve Data. Numerous households are today leading a paycheck to paycheck existence. They must be told that any unforeseen issue could surely become a major disaster if you do not buck up well in time. The cumulative effect of excessive spending would be placing individuals in a really precarious state, where they would be requiring every penny they are earning and if in case there is even one paycheck missing, it could prove to be disastrous for them.

Often experienced financial planners advise you to open a separate account where you keep an amount equivalent to three months’ expenses so that you could have access to that emergency fund if you lose your job or certain drastic changes that take place in the economy. If you do not think in advance and keep spending all your salary and lead a paycheck to paycheck existence, all your savings could be drained in no time and you would be experiencing the vicious cycle of debts and repayments.

Mistake No. 8: Not Following Any Plan

Remember your financial security and future relies on your current behaviour and lifestyle. You tend to spend a great deal of your time scrolling through your social media feeds or watching television, but you do not bother to spend just a couple of hours every week for some solid financial planning and evaluation of your financial situation. You must chalk out an effective financial plan that needs to be adhered to. You must constantly examine your financial situation. It pays to know about your current financial scene and exactly where you seem to be heading to.

Conclusion

If you wish to stay away from financial insecurity and the actual dangers of overspending, you must monitor all your insignificant expenses that seem to add up fast. Then consider keeping track of your big expenses as well. Be cautious before thinking of applying for a loan and adding fresh debts to the already extensive list of payments. Savings must be made a monthly priority. Devote enough time and effort in chalking out a sound financial strategy.

Insights Martech

4 Useful Visual Effects That Can Help Marketing Videos Stand Out

Miley on August 1, 2018

Visual effects can be a powerful tool – when used carefully. With the right approach, you can make use of visual effects to make your marketing videos stand out so that they draw more attention and keep viewers engaged.

However the trick to doing that is to use the right visual effects at the right time – and that starts by knowing some of the more useful visual effects for marketing videos:

– Video filters

Essential filters will process your video and enhance its colours by stylizing it in some way. Different filters can produce vastly different types of looks when you apply them to your marketing videos.

Generally, filters are a popular way to make marketing videos look more polished. That being said you should take care to check how a filter affects your entire video before deciding whether to use it.

By using the same filter across all your marketing videos you can create a consistent look that viewers will start to associate with your brand.

– Split screen

As its name implies, a split screen effect involves dividing the screen into two parts with different videos playing on either side. In marketing videos, this effect is often used as a way to display the similarities or differences between products.

Although learning how to make great split screen videos may sound complicated, most editors are able to produce this effect. For example, in Movavi Video Editor it will only take a few clicks to apply. If you want to create a simple split-screen video for free on Mac, you can try iMovie as well.

It is worth noting that the split screen effect can create other visual illusions such as ‘cloning’ the subject by playing two videos with the same subject and an identical background.

– Chroma key

The ‘Chroma key’ effect is more widely known as the ‘green screen’ effect and involves recording videos against a solid-coloured background that will be replaced later with a different video. It can be useful in marketing videos because it will give you full control over the background.

Sometimes this effect is used in product videos to record the product separately and then place it onto a different background later. In other cases, it is used for webinars to use the entire video background as a projection screen of sorts.

– Slow motion

Slowing down videos can help make any actions that are being performed more visible, and some marketing videos may benefit from that. For example in a how-to guide or product demonstration, it could be used to more clearly display actions that would otherwise be difficult for viewers to notice.

It should be noted that shooting slow motion videos has specific requirements – and if your video frame rate is too low in particular its quality will suffer.

Before you use any of the effects listed above in your marketing videos, think about what it is you’re trying to use them for. As a rule, you should only ever use effects in marketing videos with a goal in mind – so start by defining that goal and then figuring out how to use the effect to best achieve it.

Insights Martech

Using videos in digital marketing – 9 best ways!

Miley on July 25, 2018

Videos are a must in your digital marketing strategy because videos are versatile, and also one of the most profitable marketing tools of today! Over the past decade, there has been a radical shift from textual information to digital information. Won’t you agree? As a result of this, every business is developing a digital marketing strategy to clamour their audience’s attention. The mothership of them all are the videos without a doubt. Videos have embraced the digital age and established themselves to be the present and future of digital marketing. By using videos in your digital marketing strategy, you are choosing the right way to promote your business, build brand awareness, educate your audience while attracting them towards your business. Regardless of the type of business you own, a video is a must in your digital marketing landscape, since there’s nothing better to nail your marketing campaign. Now that you know why you need a video, and before you overflow with ideas for the same, check out the different ways to use videos and make the right choice for your business’s digital marketing strategy.

1. Commercial Videos

Is gaining the attention of a mass audience one of your objectives? But maybe you have only a little time. That’s okay! Commercial videos are less than 30 seconds, simple videos with the ability to create a huge impact amongst the viewers, in a short timespan. Best to be advertised on television, social media platforms, video hosting platforms or public events, creating a commercial video as a part of your digital marketing will help in better visibility, as well as a mass audience engagement. For that reason, they might cost you a fortune but is worth every money you spend. No matter what your business is, you’ve got the budget? Then, your digital marketing team needs to invest in a commercial video!

2. Animated Explainer Videos

While saying that there is no limit to what you can animate, as a matter of fact, it is ultimately the truth. Therefore, by including an animated explainer video in your marketing strategy, your business can pop up to great heights. There are no limits to locations, characters or objects in an animated explainer video. No matter how complex your business idea is, animated explainer videos can convey it as simple as possible. Using characters, objects or maybe a combination of these, use these videos in your digital marketing strategy for abstract and conceptual topics such as Cryptocurrency. They can be used literally by anybody from startups, B2B, B2C, mobile apps, software etc.

3. Tutorial Videos

Seems like you have a great product or service with some amazing features for its users. Do you wish to clarify the proper functioning of your product or service? In that case, including a tutorial video in your digital marketing using real product screens! Tutorial videos are instructional videos guiding your customers through the various steps to use your product or service. Including them in your digital marketing will make it easier for the users to follow, since they are engaging and educational at the same time. They are perfect to inform new customers in a business, to inform existing users about an update, while launching a new feature, in your FAQ page, as email responses, in sales demos, for training purposes of new employees and so on.

4. Live Action Explainer Videos

Locations, cast, properties, set, wardrobe! Does all that sound exciting? Well, seems like your interest lies in live action explainer videos. Live action explainer videos use real places and people to shoot the video. Using such a video in your digital marketing is helpful since, people can connect with other people, and it helps in humanizing a brand. Also, if you have a hardware product to showcase or require a human body talking to your audience, including them in your marketing idea would be great. They can be uploaded on Youtube, social media platforms, your website’s homepage etc.

5. Testimonial Videos

Letting your existing clients communicate with other clients through a video is a great digital marketing strategy. Testimonial videos are what you need to make for this. In testimonial videos, you can find real clients speaking about your business, as well as their experience of working with you. There are also case study videos used to outline a business’s effectiveness, thereby elaborating your project. It gives an idea of the challenges faced, the process and the end result of that project. Using them in your digital marketing will create a positive influence on the buying behaviour of your clients. You can incorporate them in your newsletters, blog, about us page, website landing page, social media etc.

6. Company Story Videos

Have fun at work, create an enthusiastic team and an envious work culture. Also, show this to your prospective customers. But how? Through company story videos! Company story videos are short videos to be used in your marketing, which serves the purpose of taking your clients through a stroll of the founders, employees, executives or any other person working in your organization. They show the ambience of work, with people speaking about your business thereby creating loyalty, personal connection and trust with your business. Therefore, these videos should be used in the consideration phase of the purchase funnel. Company story videos can be used in newsletters, about us page of your website, etc.

7. Branded Content

Suppose you could make a business video that influences individuals by creating a desire to see the video, as opposed to compelling them to see it. Wouldn’t that be great? That is what branded content can do in your marketing strategy. These videos barely mention the company, but the entire focus is laid on the targeted audience. These videos are attractive, engaging and impactful without a moment’s delay, therefore influencing your clients to share it all by their own will. They create audience engagement overselling the brand, hence being perfect for building a mindfulness about your business, item or service. They can be hosted on social media platforms, video hosting websites and on television.

8. Retention Videos

Are you facing huge competition in the market? Is it difficult to retain your existing customers and maintain their loyalty to your brand? That’s where you should use retention videos. Retention videos are indeed essential to engage your existing customers, connect with them and maintain their interest in your business. You can use a platform such as TikTok to create concise and compelling content for your followers, that will capture and hold the viewers attention. It’s worth taking a look at this your complete guide to buying TikTok followers on Twicsy, to create an established platform to post your content on. This type of marketing is helpful in making your customers keep coming back. Creating retention videos will ensure that you don’t lose them, while also increasing their relationship with your business. They can be either a video answering their queries, a festival greeting, a thank you video, a skit, or videos about customer updates etc.

9. Live Videos

The camera is in your pocket and you are celebrating a year of your business’s success. What are you waiting for? Take your mobile out and go live on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Live videos are nothing but videos that are shot and broadcasted at the same time, thereby helpful in connecting with your users and prospective clients in real time. These videos are an epitome of who you originally are, what your organization looks like etc. Users can shoot any questions and you can instantly send them replies or reactions. Awesome isn’t it? Live videos are a must have in your marketing strategy because they can create a rational bond with the customers, increasing their trust factor due to unfiltered content offered. Summing up, above were the different ways in which you can incorporate video into your digital marketing strategy, and shoot up to marketing heights. These video types are undoubtedly the best in town to get your marketing grip upright!

Development Insights SaaS

Answered: Your Most Burning Questions About Salesforce

Miley on July 20, 2018

Whether you are looking for a Salesforce app to use in a business operation or you want to make a position in the Salesforce world, you need to understand what Salesforce offers and what it does to help you win more customers. Being a pioneer in Salesforce, people, experienced or fresher, come to us with so many questions regarding the utility, features, and technicalities of Salesforce. Through this post, I have answered a few repetitive questions that Salesforce enthusiasts continuously ask us.

What are the benefits of Salesforce CRM?

The topmost benefits of Salesforce CRM are:

You get more opportunities to increase your sales
The use of the analytical approach to ensure customer acquisition.
Minimizing the cost to improve customer satisfaction.
The complete automation of repetitive tasks.
Upfront communication with improved efficiency

To unlock these benefits, you need to master the concepts and aspects of this CRM tool, which Salesforce training can help you achieve.

What are Salesforce’s custom objects?

Salesforce.com contains all enterprise-level data. There is a requirement for Junction Object, which has a master-detail relationship. This allows you to create a master-detail relationship between two objects and plug in a child object to a related list. You need to define these custom objects if you want to take the following steps.

Integrate records with custom objects.
Custom lists display the custom object data
Build a custom tab for a custom object.
Developing page layouts.
Developing a dashboard & report to evaluate custom object.
You can share the custom tab, app and object.

What are Governor Limits in Salesforce?

Governor Limits controls the volume of data and the number of records you can store in shared databases. This is because Salesforce is designed on the basis of multi-tenant architecture. Simply, Salesforce stores the data of multiple clients/ customers using a single database. To avoid the monopolization of shared resources, Salesforce is driving the concept of Governor Limits based on the Apex run-time engine. Whenever the Apex code goes beyond the limit, a run-time exception is what the expected governor issues that are not possible to handle. Therefore, being a Salesforce developer, stay cautious while developing your application. The governor Limits of Salesforce are:

Per-Transaction Apex Limits
Force.com Platform Apex Limits
Static Apex Limits
Size-Specific Apex Limits
Miscellaneous Apex Limits
Email Limits
Push Notification Limits

What can cause data loss in Salesforce?

Reasons responsible for Data loss in Salesforce are:

Changing date and time as well as data
Moving to currency, number, and percentage from other data types
Shifting from the multi-select picklist, checkbox, auto number to other types
Changing to multi-select picklist from any type rather than picklist
Moving to auto-number except for text
Taking advantage of text-area for e-mail, phone, URL, and text

What are the different dashboard components?

The different Dashboard components are: Chart: A graphical representation of data. Gauge: You can display a single value amongst custom values. Metric: You can show a sole key value – By clicking on a blank text field next to total and then entering the metric label straight into components. All metrics are correctly aligned in the console column. Table: Display report data in column form using the Table. Visual force-This helps generate custom component or showcase info not accessible to other sections. Custom S – component: It involves the content that runs or exhibits a browser like Excel file, Java applet, ActiveX Control and custom HTML web form.

Can you explain the details of Salesforce SaaS functionality?

The important features of Salesforce SaaS functionality are:

You get a pay-as-you-go framework that resonates well with all clientele.
You don’t need to bother about substructure management.
Retrieval of all requests via the internet.
Easy to integrate along with numerous applications.
Uncover newest features without any postponement.
High uptime and safety.
Excellent presentation for various operations.
Connect anywhere through mobile devices

If you know about CRM, you must have heard of Salesforce. It offers robust customer relationship management software, which performs real-time analytics by evaluating customers’ data. It has become a need of the hour to meet the requirement of the client end to end.

Development Insights

How Increasing Design Tolerance Can Cut Costs

Miley on July 17, 2018

Product development and design are essential for ensuring that you can actually produce and sell the products you make. Oftentimes, products are designed and produced in a way to maximize quality. In order to achieve that, tight tolerances are focused on during the development process. What exactly are tight tolerances in product development? Tolerances are variables in the design, usually concerning the dimensions of a specific product.

In layman’s terms, it’s a plus or minus here and there that are allowed in product design. Tolerances influence the overall design of the products, as well as its manufacturing and quality control. In some cases, tight tolerances are absolutely necessary to ensure that the product can perform appropriately. However, strictly leveraging tight tolerances isn’t mandatory in every case. What’s more, they will only increase the production costs. Therefore, here’s how increasing design tolerance can actually cut costs.

Determine the functionality of a product

The functionality of a product determines how it will be designed and produced. In some cases, tolerances of even a single decimal can mean the difference between a functioning product and a failed one. That is only the case if product functionality depends on tight tolerances. However, materials used in the manufacturing process also play a role in determining acceptable tolerances in product design. In other words, not every part of the product needs tight tolerances, but in most cases, the entire product is based on strict requirements.

For instance, a product with a certain number of components requires a tolerance of ±0.001 because there’s a specific way component must fit together. But, a separate part is also automatically specified using the same tolerances, even if the part does not interact with the others or may not need the same tolerances. That’s why it’s important to determine the functionality of the product and which component – if any – requires a tight tolerance to function.

Consult with a manufacturer

Creating a product design eventually comes down to tolerances that are numbers on paper. You may think that those tolerances are absolutely necessary, even if that’s not the case. Tolerances are influenced by the materials used in production, how they’re made during manufacturing and the sensitivity of product features to variations in design. That’s why it’s important to have an experienced manufacturer on board that can help you determine if there’s room to increase the design tolerance or not.

For example, if you’re developing a design for electrical components, you should consult with an electronics manufacturer. That way, a manufacturer can go over your design and help you determine the acceptable increases intolerances to help you cut costs. Electronics are produced by the IPC (Association Connecting Electronics Industries) standards which allow certain tolerances in product design. Your manufacturer will know how to best implement those tolerances, without compromising the product’s functionality and quality.

Understand the costs of tight tolerances

As mentioned before, product developers and designers focus on tight tolerances in order to ensure product quality. The reality is that tight tolerances do not always influence quality, but they are always expensive to implement. You need to consider these costs before insisting on tight tolerances. For example, tight tolerances require more precise tools and higher grade materials, which cost a lot more. The tighter the tolerance is, the more it will cost you. In addition, tight tolerances require more processing, which increases the costs of the machinery used and labour.

Moreover, you need to pay for a close inspection to determine whether the tolerances are within the acceptable range. What’s more, if you cannot implement tight tolerances on your own, you may need to outsource the process, which will cost you more. In the end, you end up paying for precision that may not be required. That’s why it’s important to actually determine if tight tolerances are mandatory for your products. If you don’t need such tolerances, you should take the opportunity to implement more appropriate variables and greatly reduce the costs of product development.

Don’t relax tolerances too much

In an effort to cut costs, increasing the design tolerance is quite beneficial. However, relaxing the tolerances too much involves certain risks. For example, the product components may not fit well together if tolerances are too extreme. In addition, your customers may disapprove of increased tolerances, if you haven’t consulted with them beforehand. Also, you may need to repeat the manufacturing process and redesign your products if you’re not careful with tolerances.

That will only skyrocket your costs. Instead of focusing on tight tolerances or relaxing them too much, you should focus on implementing quality assurance and tolerance analysis. That way, you’ll be able to determine exactly which variables are acceptable for your product design. In addition, you’ll know exactly where to apply strict tolerances and, of course, how much you can increase them to cut costs.

Product design is important for the manufacturing and quality of the products. However, ensuring product quality doesn’t always rely on implementing strictly tight tolerances. Tight tolerances are only required when there are specific needs and functionality requirements. Other than that, you can consider relaxing the product design tolerance and save yourself a lot of money during the development process.

About the author:

My name is Raul, editor in chief at Technivorz blog. I have a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. You can reach me out on Twitter.

Insights

The IRS’ View on Bitcoin Roth IRA’s

Miley on July 5, 2018

Bitcoin was developed in 2009, which means it is not even 10 years old yet. The result of this is that financial experts are not making any statements with certainty on it yet because it is impossible to draw real conclusions in such a short period of time. This country is, in fact, one of the only ones in the world that has issued formal guidelines on cryptocurrencies as an investment class. Knowing the IRS’ view on bitcoin roth IRA’s is very important if you were hoping to invest in one.

How the IRS Views Bitcoin Roth IRA’s

The IRS made an official statement in March 2014 outlining that dates are cryptocurrencies as a type of commodity when calculating taxation. This means it processes Bitcoin in the same way as stocks and bonds. The IRS declared that cryptocurrencies are a type of property, which means that investment in them is possible but only when overseen by a custodian so that regulations are complied with.

Historic Lee, custodians would only accept mainstream assets in an IRA. This includes certificates of deposits, mutual funds, bonds, and stocks. Hence, if you do wish to invest in a cryptocurrency, you will have to choose a self-directed option. You do have the option of choosing between a traditional IRA, whereby you pay taxes on the eventual withdrawals, or a Roth IRA, where buy you pay taxes on the initial deposits.

Image via Pixabay

A bitcoin Roth IRA is fully self-directed. This means you decide when to buy, sell, and hold bitcoins. You can also purchase dedicated cryptocurrency fund shares. If you want to invest directly in cryptocurrency, you will effectively become a Forex Trader with the difference being that your currency is not a mainstream one. If, on the other hand, you decide to invest in fund shares, you will delegate forex knowledge to that fund instead. Hence, you need to weigh up whether you have more confidence in your own skills or whether you have more confidence in the skills of a shared fund. Again, because bitcoin is so new, it can be quite difficult to determine whether or not someone truly does have the required experience to properly invest in this currency, but then the same would go for you personally.

Whatever decisions you make, you will have to open a bitcoin wallet. This is not a physical wallet but rather an application on which your digital signature, also known as private keys, are stored. Those keys are required in order for you to move coins between others on the public ledger, which is the blockchain. Those private keys are incredibly valuable because of the anonymity of the blockchain. It is impossible to determine who is accessing the chain so if you share your private key with someone else, for instance through loss or theft, they will be able to remove all your bitcoin and you will never be able to get them back. Do be careful with your private key, therefore!

Development Insights

How to Improve Your Customer Help

Miley on June 28, 2018

The customers’ journey is an important thing to keep track of in today’s market. Customers who are happy with their journey with your brand are more loyal – and more likely to make future purchases than those who aren’t. You also have the ability to build better relationships with the customers through a positive customer experience.

Naturally, the customers’ journey doesn’t stop when they make a purchase. Offering good customer support and aftersales services is also an important thing to do. To improve customer support, here are some of the strategies you can implement right away.

Keep Track of Support Requests

One of the worst things you can do when providing customer support is not keeping track of customers’ requests properly. This usually leads to the customers having to explain their issues again, which is extremely annoying for them.

A simple IT solution is all you need to manage customer requests better. A help desk software is a great foundation and will lead to better – and more efficient – customer support. The help desk software then acts as a way to manage your customer support efforts.

The IT industry has used help desk software to provide invaluable services to their customers. Today, other industries are using the same approach to deliver the same level of user experience across their customer base.

Service-Minded Employees

The next challenge to tackle is employee development. You can’t expect to offer good customer support without employees who are serious about offering the best customer service. Training and development programs are how you reconfigure employees to have a more service-oriented mindset.

You can start by strengthening the customer service skills of key employees. The most important skills to develop are empathy and patience, good product knowledge, the ability to mitigate customers’ complaints intelligently, and good worth ethic in general.

These skills can be further supported by the good understanding of customer touchpoints and how every part of the customers’ experience can be improved. Even bad customer experience is an opportunity; through good customer service, those disappointed customers can become your most loyal ambassadors.

Focus on Interactions

The incredible solutions you deliver are important, but how you deliver them is even more important. You want to make sure that the good aftersales experience you provide is the experience the customers see and feel too.

The way to do this is by ensuring customer support is delivered in a timely and pleasant manner. You can establish policies to allow the customer support executives or officers to do just that while staying within the boundaries of SOPs.

The way executives interact with the customers’ matters too. Offer a more personalized approach, listen to what the customers really want, and don’t be afraid to admit mistakes. Admitting your mistake even before customers launch their complaints is a powerful way to ensure that the customers always have a great customer experience.

Combined, these strategies will substantially improve customer support and the overall customer journey. Add sincerity to the mix, and you have the perfect recipe for offering stunning aftersales service that keeps customers coming back for more.

Development Insights

Why You Should Invest in a Digital Kanban Board

Miley on June 28, 2018

Digital Kanban boards are taking the tech world by storm as the software helps teams to prioritise tasks and improve efficiency in the workplace. Kanban might have started off as a physical board, but the digital version of the software is becoming very popular and it is something that you should consider investing in if you want to improve how your team works. In this article, we are going to take you through some of the reasons why you should invest in a digital Kanban board and the benefits that this piece of tech can bring to you. Keep reading if you’d like to hear more about this.

What Is Kanban Software?

Kanban software comes in many forms with many different companies giving their own take on this sort of organisational structure. With Kanban software, you input tasks onto the board when they first are confirmed. From here, tasks move across the board depending on their level of completion. This means that tasks can be prioritised, and staff efficiency levels can be monitored. Make sure to learn more about Kanban software before you invest in this piece of technology to ensure that it is right for you. You can learn all you need to know by reading Kanbanize’s guide “Kanban Software: Explore the Opportunities“.

Easy to Use

With an online Kanban board, you can create it to work for the type of project that you are completing. Every team is different and so the fact that this type of system is so easy to use makes a huge difference. When you first download the software, you can choose the type of layout that you want, and you’ll find it really easy to add new cards and move them along the board when you need to. This type of technology is a lot easier to use than a physical board that will require you have to write on cards or print them out. With an online Kanban board, you can edit the cards in a matter of seconds.

Great for Teamwork

If you have a large team then you will love this benefit of using an online Kanban board. When you put the different tasks on the board, your whole team can see it and they can grab a task and get it done. You don’t need to worry about things slipping through the cracks as Kanban doesn’t allow for this. If you invest in this software, you won’t need to inform your team of what they need to do and when it needs to be done by because they’ll already know. You’ll save yourself time on having meetings and sending out emails and you’ll be able to get your work done more quickly.

Remote Workers

One of the best things about Kanban software is that it can be used by any member of the team no matter where they are. As long as they have access to the software on their computer or their mobile phone app, they can view the board online and get started. This works really well if you have remote workers or you don’t have the main office. You could also consider getting rid of your office and having your staff work from home. They’ll be able to stay connected using the Kanban board online and you can still get your work done effectively.

Improve Efficiency

If your team struggle with getting things done on time, you’ll find that having an online Kanban board can totally change the way they work. The system works well to improve efficiency and you’ll be able to identify the weak points in the company. Perhaps someone is not getting as much work done as you’d like, maybe you could use this information to try them on another task or analyse what they did well. Making use of a Kanban board can really help you to understand how your team works and you’ll be able to get your projects done on time.

Reasonably Priced

When it comes to Kanban software, you don’t even need to fork out a lot of money to get help with your business. This piece of tech is reasonably priced and if you find a good one, you might even get a free trial to see if you could really benefit from this type of software. Don’t be afraid to have a look around at what is available online in order to really improve how your businesses flow.

Final Thoughts

If you are thinking about investing in Kanban software, then you’ll find that it is actually a really good idea. There are a lot of benefits and you will see your business start to shine as you improve the way in which your team works. The systems are easy to use, and you’ll get to grips with them reasonably fast so make sure to try it now.

Insights

A beginner’s guide to crypto currency wallets

Miley on June 18, 2018

If you’re just getting started with cryptocurrencies you’ll probably agree that wallets can be a bit of a pain. There is often a relatively big learning curve that comes with effectively trading, sending & receiving and actually using crypto – all of which need a wallet to do so.

In this post, I’ll quickly dive into some of the key elements of a crypto wallet which will help beginners get started.

Hopefully, in the future, and with new technologies being developed, wallets and storing of crypto funds will become very simple.

We definitely need crypto to be at the lowest barrier to entry as possible in order to spur mass adoption. However, for now, you should sit back, take a few notes and get ready to learn a few things.

What is a cryptocurrency wallet?

In its very basic form, a wallet represents a cryptocurrency investor’s bank account. It’s program that stores private and public keys and helps the user interact with blockchain technology in order to use cryptocurrency. Your cryptocurrency isn’t really stored on your wallet but instead lives on the blockchain. Your wallet gives you access to it.

Different types of wallets

Seeing a wallet as a piece of software will help you understand the different types better. There are many different types of wallets but as a beginner, you’ll only need to understand the following:

Desktop wallets: A popular desktop wallet example is Exodus which is able to host a range of ERC20 (Ethereum blockchain) tokens and many of the biggest names such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, EOS etc.

Mobile wallets: Mobile wallets come in the shape of a mobile application. Using a mobile wallet means that your crypto is always with you, but it’s a little less user-friendly compared to desktop wallets. If you’d like to install a mobile wallet, give Eidoo a try.

Online wallets: When you register on a cryptocurrency exchange, that exchange creates a wallet for each of the tokens that you trade. It is possible to store all your crypto on online or exchange wallets, but it always comes with some risk as hackers love going after crypto exchanges. Some of the biggest crypto hacks include the $460 million Mt Gox hack of 2014.

Tips for security

Wallet security can a very technical and complicated process. However, there are some basic principals you can follow to keep your crypto safe.

Make backups of your private keys on multiple storage devices. Some people even print copies and store them in safety deposit boxes.
Never share your private keys with anyone.
Watch out for scam or phishing sites that try to steal your information. This is especially important with regards to online or exchange wallets. Always make sure you are on the site you need to be and not a fake copy of it.

Tips for transferring coins between wallets

When it comes to paying for something with cryptocurrency you own, it requires some concentration and a little know-how. Let’s say you want to invest in an ICO and the ICO only accepts Bitcoin as payment for their tokens.

In order to purchase their tokens, you’ll need to own Bitcoin. Next, you’ll want to access your wallet whether it’s desktop, mobile or based online. You’ll need to navigate towards your Bitcoin wallet and send the appropriate investment amount to the ICO’s Bitcoin wallet address.

It needs to be from a Bitcoin address to a Bitcoin address otherwise it won’t work. Follow the same principle for any other cryptocurrency you use.

Never try to type a crypto address, always copy and paste it to avoid making mistakes.

I want to participate in an airdrop, what type of wallet should I use?

It’s best to follow instructions given to each specific airdrop. However, as most ICO projects and airdrops, as discussed on The Crypto Coin Authority Blog, are based on the Ethereum blockchain, you’ll need an ERC20 supported wallet. For this, you can either use Eidoo as mentioned above or MetaMask which is a popular browser-based wallet.

Which wallet should I get started with?

Blockchain technology has raised serious interest among investors, with many publicly traded stocks seeing a price per share growth just as a result of adding “blockchain” to their names. This has led to a surge in volume for cryptocurrency penny stocks that trade as regulated securities. Cryptocurrency wallets are not necessary for trading those public stocks because that industry is more highly regulated with protections for investors. It is, however, highly suggested that you protect your assets with a cryptocurrency wallet if you are investing in cryptocurrencies themselves, due to the heightened risks involved.

It all depends on what cryptocurrencies you plan on investing in. If you plan on getting some of the big names like Bitcoin or Ethereum then a simple desktop or mobile wallet as previously mentioned will work fine.

You’ll need an exchange wallet to trade, but that gets set up when you register for the exchange. Some cryptocurrency has their own wallet that you’ll need to set up in order to own those tokens.

The same principals apply as with most desktop and mobile wallets.

Moving forward

There you have it, very simple and basic advice on cryptocurrency wallets – perfect for a beginner getting started with their first piece of the cryptocurrency market! Keep in mind that this guide is very basic and there is much more to learn.

However, that’s the beauty of cryptocurrency, there is always something new to learn. Now it’s your turn to go out and start a journey of a lifetime!